As the electric vehicle industry prepares to make the transition from niche to volume applications, so it is apparent that the traditional automotive industry value chain is insufficient to the task. The successful production, sale and use of electric vehicles on a large scale demands that the industry look beyond traditional boundaries to create new value added configurations. In this perspective, electric vehicles are not simply another technology that can be folded into the existing way of doing business for the automotive industry. On the contrary, this paper seeks to show that the mass adoption of electric vehicles will bring new ways of creating and capturing added value. The growth of the electric vehicle sector is unlikely to be entirely monopolized by the existing major vehicle manufacturers, although it is entirely reasonable to expect that their overall preeminence will be preserved as the entities with the technological capability, brand reputation and marketing knowledge and structures to build and supply electric vehicles to customers. It is concluded that about designing product and mobility offerings to achieve market acceptance in the face of levels of fragmentation and turbulence unprecedented in the industry. Risk aversion may not constitute a viable strategy in these circumstances, but neither are there simple solutions to be applied. © 2010 WEVA.
